Merle Alvin STACKLAND

STACKLAND, WILLEY, WEHRHEIM

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 6/2/2014 at 13:12:50

December 2, 1925 -- June 13, 1955

Pilot Killed In Northwest Iowa Crash

EAGLE GROVE — An old, open cockpit Waco airplane, carrying two Eagle Grove flying enthusiasts, crashed Monday afternoon killing the pilot, Merle Stackland, 28. Ben Willey, 42, an attorney and real estate operator, was injured. He was reported in fair condition at Mercy hospital, Ft. Dodge. The plane crashed in a cornfield near the Eagle Grove Country club after hitting some trees. The two unmarried men had taken off from a dirt landing strip constructed only several months ago by other Eagle Grove aviation promoters. The plane came down about 300
feet from the take-off point. Persons at the country club said they heard the plane's engine sputter, then fail. The piiot apparently was trying to get back to the field, when the plane clipped the trees. Stackland, a semi-trailer truck driver for the Safeway Co. of Ft. Dodge, died a few minutes after the crash. The plane was owned by the two men and Connie Wehrheim of Eagle Grove.

Iowa City Press Citizen - Iowa
June 14, 1955

[buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Eagle Grove]